Tag Archives: Robocop

#3743: Robocop

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

ROBOCOP

ROBOCOP (TOY ISLAND)

In prep for this review, I was genuinely uncertain if I’d talked about Robocop on the site, and in fact, yes, I have.  I looked at the two NECA figures I had, which is well enough.  Of course, that’s all on the more recent side (relatively speaking, at least), but let’s go back to the beginning.  Or, you know, at least closer to it, with a little company called Toy Island, who devoted quite a bit of their business to making toys of things that probably shouldn’t have had toys in the ’90s.  There was a whole selection of Robocop stuff from them, following up on what Kenner had done in the prior decade.  And today, I’m looking at one of their smallest offerings.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robocop was released by Toy Island in 1995, as a tie-in to the live-action show, rather than the movie.  Of course, for Robocop himself, it’s only a minor distinction.  He was part of the smaller scale stuff, which was a lot of one-and-done releases of main characters, usually designed to fill out the pegs at KB.  The figure is just under 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s *sort of* 1/18 scale, but not really, because he’s ultimately rather small, which was the case with a lot of the Toy Island stuff.  He’s very limited in his posing, especially because he lacks a neck joint.  Of course, to be fair, Robocop was also rather stiff in his movements by design, so it sort of tracks in that respect.  The sculpt is itself pretty rudimentary.  His head seems to be a little thin, and also too big, which feels like its saying two different things, but it’s not.  That said, the armor and body details are all actually pretty sharp.  Sure, they don’t all completely line-up with the design for the character, but it’s also not terribly far off.  His paint work is pretty basic.  The armoring seems a little dark for the character, but beyond that, it’s generally fine.  Robocop’s one accessory was an M-16, which is just emphatically not right for the character at all, but it’s presumably something Toy Island already had a mold for, so there it was.  Regardless, it’s a piece that’s missing from mine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy was one of my Nana’s signature “bought one for all the grandkids” purchases, paired off with the Toy Island T-800, all of them purchased on sale at KB Toys.  I had no clue about either character at the time, and I thought they were actually linked, and had to sort of come up with my own story for them.  It was a good while before I knew anything about Robocop in actuality.  This figure’s pretty hokey, but at the same time, he’s really not bad, especially given what he was meant to be.

#1341: Robocop w/ Spring-loaded Holster

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with ,

ROBOCOP w/ SPRING-LOADED HOLSTER

ROBOCOP (NECA)

Robocop.  He’s a cop and also a robot.  Okay, that’s not entirely true.  I think he’s technically a cyborg.  Right?  I mean, he uses a real guy’s face, doesn’t he?  The movie sort of blurs the line, so it’s a little difficult to say if he’s a robot with the face and memories of a dead guy, or if he’s a dead guy with robotic enhancements.  All of this is my way of saying that I have no idea what to say in a Robocop intro.  So, there you go.  Anyway, I’m looking at a Robocop figure today, so let’s just get right into it, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

“Leg Holster” Robocop is part of the second assortment of NECA’s Robocop line.  After the basic Murphy did decent business, they decided to follow him up with a couple of variants.  While this guy is *technically* a variant, he actually improves on a few issues from the basic Murphy figure, and is kind of the “ultimate” Robocop, so to speak.  The figure hands a little over 7 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  He’s not super mobile, but then, neither was the character in the film, now was he?  This figure mostly re-uses pieces from the standard Robocop figure.  The sculpt was a good one, and is incredibly faithful to the movie’s design.  One notable fix between this figure and the initial one is that this one’s mask has been pushed all the way down, so he doesn’t have the slight bit of extra nose protruding down like the first figure, which makes for an overall much better look.  What can be seen of the face is rather on the generic side (since Peter Weller has yet to grant his likeness rights to NECA), but it’s a tiny enough section of face that there’s not much of a likeness to worry about.  The main change to this figure is the right thigh, which has been designed to replicate Murphy’s built-in leg holster.  There’s a button on the back of the leg, which pops it open, revealing the “holster” (which is really just a set of clips which can hold the gun), and allowing for the gun to be placed inside.  Then you can pop the leg back together, albeit with a fair bit of effort.  When I got the figure, I was initially worried that the leg holster might interfere with the quality of the figure, and possibly be too gimmicky, but it’s really not.  It’s there if you want to use it, but once you clip the leg back together, it’s as if the spring-loaded feature isn’t there at all.  The paint on Robocop is pretty solid.  The base work is all nice and clean, and I particularly like the slightly iridescent finish to the silver sections.  He includes his signature gun, as well as an alternate right hand with his data spike extended.  Apart from an unmasked head (which obviously wasn’t going to happen), I really can’t think of anything else he’d need!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I bought this figure whilst in the midst of my NECA summer, aka the first summer that I discovered NECA, where I was playing catch-up and getting as many of the older figures as I could.  This particular figure was purchased in response to Hot Toys announcing their own version of Murphy.  He was super cool, but I realized that spending $300 on a figure from a movie I at best kind-of-sort-of enjoy made absolutely no sense.  So, I got this guy instead, and I’ve been quite happy with him ever since!

#0269: ED-209

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

ED-209

ROBOCOP (NECA)

I’ve never been a huge Robocop fan. It probably doesn’t help that Robocop 3 was the first of the movies I saw. It’s not very good, so I was kinda turned off the whole thing. I did eventually see the original Robocop, and I do think it’s a pretty good movie, but I wouldn’t rank it as one of my favorites. Still, it has some pretty impressive design work, namely on the title character and one of his nemeses from the first film, the ED-209. NECA has the license to the original movies, and they’ve put out a few versions of Robocop and one of the ED-209. Let’s take a look at the ED-209!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ed-2092The ED-209 was a special online-only deluxe release for NECA’s Robocop line. The figure stands about 10 inches tall and features 15 points of articulation. It’s based on the ED-209’s design from the first Robocop movie. The figure features an all new sculpt, meant to replicate the look of the original ED-209 model. Near as I can tell, they’ve pretty much nailed it. All the details look to be in just the right places, and the figure features some great sculpted texture work, that really makes the figure look like it stepped off the screen. The amount of detail NECA has put into every little nook and cranny on this figure is nothing short of astounding. The figure’s paint work is pretty great too. There’s pretty much no slop or bleed over, and the paint does a tremendous job accenting all the details in the sculpt. I’d even say that the metallic sheen present on the figure’s main body makes it look more realistic that the actual ED-209 model! ED-209’s articulation is slightly limited, with just 15 points on such a large figure, but what’s there works really well, and while it’s too bad he doesn’t have any ankle articulation, but the figure is more stable that way. The ED-209 included no accessories, but he does feature a sound feature. When you press the button on the right side of ED-209’s head, he makes one of four possible sounds. I’ve included a video to demonstrate this. The clips are clear and loud, which is always a good thing with sound features.

ED-2095 ED-2094 ED-2093

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I got into NECA last year around the release of their Aliens line, I started picking up figures from some of their other lines as well. One of those was the second NECA Robocop figure. Not long after I picked the figure up, NECA announced their ED-209. I was initially interested, but when the figure was released, I didn’t have the $70 to spare, and I wasn’t sure I still wanted it. However, a few weeks ago, my brother Christian was looking at a few things on Think Geek, and I noticed they had the ED-209 marked down to $42, plus they were having an addition 20% off, bringing the figure to under $35. At that price, the figure was a steal! I’m glad I was able to find the figure at such a great price. At full price, I think the figure’s still okay, but I’m not sure I’d go for it.

ED-2096